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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27742534">Unholy Union</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/alkatie/pseuds/alkatie'>alkatie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hamilton - Miranda</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternative Universe-AU, Crack Treated Seriously, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Mental Health Issues, No claim to historic accuracy, One Shot, Panic Attacks, Politics, Teachers, Trans Female Character, meintions of violence, you never guess who tho</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:35:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,652</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27742534</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/alkatie/pseuds/alkatie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Reincarnation is a bitch. That the world is so much better because of it is no excuse.</p><p>Or<br/>In which two people become best buddies despite everybody expecting them to be enemies, including themselves.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Unholy Union</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Based on a comment an Historian made in a Documentary on the early years of the revolutionary war, that those two had enough common interest that they could have gotten along pretty well in any other time. Naturally, my friend forced me to write this out after I pitched the idea to her, despite my pledge to never write fanfiction about any person that is or was alive at some point. Except its Hamilton, so I know the people reading this are used to some weird mix of historical inspired  fictional people.<br/>It should be clear by now that I don't own any of the characters, nor am I Lin or any other of the geniuses involved in the creation of the Musical. I'm just having fun and paying my respects.<br/>So, please enjoy my show.^^</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>-oIMMIo-</p><p>They meet at the age of twelve in the waiting room.<br/>
In truth they have seen each other before, the boy has the appointment spot before his for half a year now. But, until two days before they merely glanced at each other in the younger ones rush to get out as fast as possible while rubbing away tears. He fully understood.</p><p>Reincarnation is a bitch.</p><p>George was never in the habit to swear, but there isn’t a more accurate description.<br/>
A twelve-year-old should not spend an hour on two days every week talking to a psychiatrist because they were dealing with PTSD caused by battles fought over two centuries ago. Yet, here he was.</p><p>He had made the mistake of googling his name one dark night just to see if the bloodshed, the heartbreak, would ever end.<br/>
It did, and he was looking forward to the memories of his later live, but he also found out who exactly that George Washington was- yes, the city and the state were both named after him- and that opened a whole other can of worms. He never told his parents, or the few friends he didn’t alienate with his sudden change in behavior. It was just too much.</p><p>Well, he always had assumed the other boy had been there because of his past lives.<br/>
Now as he sits on the couch with a black eye from two days prior, he’s pretty sure that one was just completely bonkers.</p><p>And when the door opens and the other stops before him again, staring him down just like last time, George grips his book harder, fully expecting him to start screaming utter nonsense and then attacking him again.<br/>
But he simply straightens himself in a way no twelve-year-old ever would and clears his throat. “I apologize profoundly for my behavior two days prior.”<br/>
He looks like he had to swallow an insect. George hums disbelieving. That was the most insincere apology he ever heard. Including whatever Alexander had come up. Huh? He files that new name away for later.</p><p>The boy sighs. “Look. My former life was insane. I am not. You triggered a memory of one of his fits. He probably knew you before. You are a reincarnate? Somewhere around the end of the eighteenth century?”<br/>
“A general, yes,” George confirms, fed up with the high-handed attitude.<br/>
“That explains a lot.” He offers his hand. “Frederick Finch. Yes, the name is an alliteration which is so funny.”<br/>
George smiles at the sarcasm. “Gilbert Welsh,” he offers, shaking it. Frederick is not the only one with a weird name. Well, it feels weird to him.</p><p>“Gilbert,” Frederick repeats in perfect French pronunciation, “pleased to meet you. Again, apologies for … that. I didn’t have a fit like that since my first awakening. I’m usually able to deal with the memories and able to prevent episodes like that. Also, considering the fact that he only went mad in his later life it’s supposed to be easy right now. I really can’t explain what happened. Then again, I never met anyone from my time period before.”</p><p>“Shouldn’t that affect you, too?”</p><p>“No, It’s… complicated.”</p><p>George snorts. “I may currently look like a twelve-year-old boy, but I’m over seventy, my friend.”</p><p>Frederic stares, then nods. “Right.”<br/>
Oh.<br/>
Before George can add something, Frederick already launces enthusiastically into a medical lecture of genetics and mental health. He only understands every fifth word but the speed and enthusiasm and the sheer knowledge painfully remind him of a person he has no name or memory of but knows was dear to his heart.</p><p>“So, in summary, it was an actual physical disability affecting the neuronal workings of your brain and thus causing the symptoms of a mental illness. But you are physically healthy now, thus It doesn’t affect you.”</p><p>“A lot of Mental Illnesses are caused by chemical or neuronal imbalances. But in contrary to issues caused by various traumas, which are relived when receiving those memories again, yes- "Frederick nods, bright blue eyes shining. " Which leaves me only with my paranoia, occasional anxiety attacks and depressions over my actions.”</p><p>“Something I’m well acquainted with. Reincarnation is a bitch.” He hesitantly adds after a short pause.</p><p>Frederick giggles manically at that, but is interrupterd by the Doctor poking her head out of her door, searching for George. “Right. That… I should forget that sentence as fast as possible. Anyway. Thanks for listening. It really was nice to meet you, Mr. Welsh.”<br/>
He bows, not particularly deep which says a lot over his social standing, but at the same time it feels like the right thing to do. George stands up and does the same. “You as well, sir. Until the next time.”<br/>
With that, he ducks into the office and takes a deep breath, just a little more ready to face his demons.</p><p>From there on they always exchange a few words in between, and George is surprised how those small interactions laced with the familiar mannerisms of his time help.<br/>
No longer is he silently begging for the approach of this sixteenth birthday, the day the flood of memories always stops for all reincarnates regardless if they regained everything or not. He’s still surprised when Frederick shoves a small envelope with an invitation to his birthday party in his hand.<br/>
That’s why Gorge finds himself awkwardly standing in the barely decorated living room of the small apartment Frederick lives in with his parents, fidgeting with the bow on the small gift he got last minute.</p><p>“So, is anybody else-“</p><p>“No.” Fredrick grabs the gift from his hands and jumps onto the couch, long thin legs dangling from the side. He carelessly tears the red wrappings aside and grins widely at the astronomy book inside.</p><p>“Ok?”</p><p>Frederick sighs in that dramatic way he always does. “So far I always was forced to invite children who have no Idea what I went through and to whom I barely talked. But my mother thought them to be friends of mine,  inviting them so I wouldn’t be lonely. You’re not supposed to feel like an outsider on your own birthday party. I rather invite only one guest, whose company I truly enjoy, don’t you think? I’ve had enough empty chattering congratulations on my birthday for one life.”</p><p>“Certainly not,” George agrees, fully knowing what Frederik means. Then he notices something else. “You celebrated your birthday before?”</p><p>“Yes. You didn’t?”</p><p>“Once or twice. I member my aides and my wife conspiring about it later in life. I mean, it wasn’t common to do so.”</p><p>Frederick looks at him strangely. “True.”</p><p>George grins. “They lit up the whole mansion with lanterns of every color. Even the poles of the vineyards all around and small candles floating in the bay. It was gorgeous.”</p><p>“Surely a sight to behold.”</p><p>“It was in the middle of winter, so the fields had been bare anyway. It had been the perfect surprise.”</p><p>“Oh, you’ve been a farmer?”</p><p>“Eh. Something like that. A Landowner.”</p><p>“Of course. General.”</p><p>Funnily enough, George isn’t even surprised about the hour-long conversation about agriculture and farming that starts afterwards. When he leaves that evening, he considers Frederick his friend.</p><p>-oIMMIo-</p><p>“Yes, he took his medicaments. No, there are none for this. Not everything can be solved by drugging somebody up. Especially not that,” George hisses.<br/>
Ignorant fools, all of them. How anybody could trust their children to persons like that? Sure, as long as they behaved it was great. But this was Frederick.<br/>
“Let me speak to him. Please.”</p><p>Anne scowls skeptical, but Mr. Dawson sighs. “If you can.”<br/>
<br/>
George pushes past the camp supervisor and his employee and knocks at the cabin door. “Frederick? It’s me.”<br/>
When he’s met with silence, he repeats his actions.<br/>
And finally there’s a faint click of the lock.<br/>
<br/>
George braces himself before getting inside. Frederick paces frantically up and down, face and shirt still full of chicken curry and a smile on his face. Not his tight lipped small one. His angry one, wide and all teeth with burning eyes, which let him seem like the psychopath he isn’t. He is deep into his accent-not the British, the other one simmilar yet differnt enough to be noticed.<br/>
<br/>
“They do not stop laughing. Why won’t they stop laughing. I told them to stop. But nobody listens to me anymore. Why won’t they listen? I’m not a fool. I do not even wish to be funny, yet they won’t stop laughing at me.”<br/>
<br/>
“They are teenagers. They would have laughed at that happening to anybody, that’s just what they do,” Gorge interrupts.</p><p>Frederick waves dismissive. “You don’t understand. There’s not an ounce of respect left for me.”</p><p>“That’s not true. I respect you.”</p><p>“I have proof. History itself laughs at me. All of them living ever since. They laugh at all my past decisions. Do they even know how it is to lead? What I’ve done? I’ve done nothing wrong! Yet, they continue to mock me.”</p><p>“If you look out of that window you will see five kids standing there, caring for your wellbeing.”</p><p>“Caring? Caring, Hah. They ogle me like an oddity on exposition in an curiosity cabinet. Waiting for the next funny thing I do, so they can gossip about it. Predators.”</p><p>Seriously? “Those are Children, Finch! Children. The oldest of them are fifteen!”</p><p>Yes, eightgraders are cruel, but not like that! The commanding voice seems to pull him back. He grasps his short hair and sinks back on his bed, taking shallow uneven breaths. George immediately grabs the blanket from his own bed and drapes it around the shaking frame, then slide his hands down his arms until he gently reaches Frederick’s hands, loses them out of his hair and takes them in his.<br/>
“A good and virtuous nature may recoil, in an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon: that which you are my thoughts cannot transpose…”</p><p>It’s Macbeth, it’s always Macbeth that calms him down. He mutters on and on the familiar verses until Frederick joins in. “Fare thee well, Lord: I would not be the villain that</p><p>thou think’s…” He smiles weakly. “Thank you. That was… Thank you.”</p><p>“You need a few more minutes? Marc has saved another plate for you.”</p><p>“Let me wash my face. Then they may come in,” he decides courtly after a short pause.</p><p>George nods then goes back to the door and opens it. “His Lordship will see you now,” he announces and promptly earns a pillow to the back of his head.<br/>
But Frederick giggles so it’s all right. He’s always recovering surprisingly fast from his anxiety attacks, George usually needs a full day’s break after his.<br/>
Then again, he has already a full lifetime of experience dealing with that stuff. He will definitely sleep in tomorrow, though.</p><p>Marc and Courtney are the ones who decide to come in, bringing the small bowl of Curry with them, while the other three of their friends stay outside. Courtney ruffles his hair as thanks while passing and he’s reminded how small he still is. He hopes for that growths spurt when he’s fourteen.<br/>
They eat in comfortable silence, and George watches them, deciding then and there that he’s going to be either a Social Worker or a Teacher. He always enjoyed the company of children, and the way they are treated here is just wrong. It couldn’t be any harder than defeating an Empire. And with Frederick, he was sure he had already one man at his back.</p><p>They don’t visit the same school and won’t do so until college. Yet they spent every year in the same summer camp and every other weekend with each other. Thy grow inseparable, the unholy union, often confusing people why they are even friends until they get to know both of them better.<br/>
<br/>
You see, while both are humble, good at organizing and showing the interest in others that let them feel welcoming, George is warm but stern and rather withdrawn with a soft voice and thoughtful considered words. Frederick has an aloof, arrogant attitude, bored and mistrustful of the world.<br/>
If he actually gets interested, he’s able to charm the people he talks to instantly by being a good listener, holding strong opinions and is able to back them with facts, his pool from seemingly endless knowledge coming from sometimes downright manic sponging up every single information he can get on the topic and if allowed able to talk for hours once asked about, eager to share. He always has a notebook and pen with him, constantly making lists or noting things down to research or memorize. He’s a true polymath, a genius and a scolar of the old ways, holding himself with a grace that takes years of training, yet his paranoia at becoming a laughingstock keeps him from trusting anybody, even himself.<br/>
It doesn’t prevent him from becoming a regular in the outings with the small group of five of Georges closest friends, none of them except Frederic being from their time.</p><p>It is in college where George realizes for the first time how much this paranoia really cripples him.</p><p>When they find out they are accepted into the same institution, they don’t even think twice.<br/>
They don’t get the same dorm room and while George gets into History and Math with the full intention to become a Teacher, Frederic takes astrophysics, and minors in economics and English literature. The later ones, just for fun.<br/>
Except, he’s not able to speak before people, nor willing to take on the lead or additional responsibilities. George tries to convince him to join the debate team, because he can craft decent enough speeches, but as soon as the results return and they want him as the captain, he bolts. He can work with others, his group assignments are always successful, but he avoids the spotlight just as much as George does.<br/>
But, George as an introvert simply doesn’t like it, while Frederick fears it. Even if he has the full potential to take it, as he’s proven three years later when proclaimed valedictorian.</p><p>He’s completely floored and starting to mumble something about being right and being able to make the correct decisions.<br/>
George doesn’t try to make sense out of it, Frederick usually explains his mumbles if they are intentional so he just gins and claps his shoulder. Fredrick grins back and there’s a new spark in his blue eyes.</p><p>A few days later, he delivers one of the best speeches George has ever heard, with a strangely familiar style he can’t place, in a voice fit for an battlefield or congress and the poise of a king, and George knows he’s a man used to power, not necessarily seeking it but expertly wielding it. He’s terrifying.<br/>
Afterwards, he fumbles with his exam scroll and shyly asks George what he thought about his words and George hates himself for being relieved that Frederick is standing in his own way. He doesn’t ask him for his name, doesn’t offer his, he’s too unsettled about the answer he might get.</p><p>-oIMMIo-</p><p>After college they lose contact for over six years.<br/>
There are the occasional letters and they never once fail to deliver each other’s birthday presents, but they don’t speak, too busy with building their lives.<br/>
Frederik works relentlessly to climb in some business in Silicon Valley while George works at a small High School in South Dakota.</p><p>He is satisfied with his routine and the quiet life he leads.<br/>
Here, he can change the world in small steps by giving his students a future. The educational system is in shambles, and the lack of knowledge in the schedule he has to deliver alarming, so he dives headfirst into it. His students improve, and he feels he can reach them, teach them the real history of their country when all crumbles down.</p><p>Twenty-three deaths because a sixteen-year-old regenerate who wasn’t able to pay the costs for his therapy got his hands on a gun.</p><p>He tries to continue but he finds himself more than often on a field near Monmouth or the freezing hell of Valley Forge, so he leaves and retreats back home.<br/>
Literally.<br/>
He becomes a guide in his own house at Mount Vernon. He notices the glances of the other employees whenever he gets too detailed or get caught in a memory, but they don’t say anything and he’s grateful for it.</p><p>When he realizes, it’s not the teaching but the place causing the flashbacks, he applies to a small school in New York.<br/>
And finds himself standing in front of Frederick again.</p><p>“Aren’t you supposed to work for-“</p><p>“They found out about my history of mental health and fired me.”</p><p>“You had a fit?”</p><p>He smiles angrily. “I have the potential of fits.”</p><p>George's not sure what to answer to that so he changes the subject. “So, you went into teaching.”</p><p>“This is where the future is shaped. Where children can still be molded, the values they shall follow be instilled. So they change the world with them in mind.”</p><p>“If you say it like that it sounds terribly despotic.”</p><p>“But, it’s the exact reason why you’re here, too.”</p><p>“The words you use to describe your intention, always influence how you execute them,” he muses warningly. And he’s right.</p><p>Frederick is one of those teachers the students either hate or love.<br/>
He's motivated but distant, keeping things professional and George is pretty sure the students see him laugh for the first time in his company, which raises his own popularity overnight. Frederick has a clear goal he wants his students to reach and while he does everything to help them and leaves no one behind, he also demands a high working discipline and more often than not punishes those straying away from his instructions unnecessarily hard.</p><p>George takes him aside and they have a long discussion after a girl comes in with a splint on her arm and sleeping in class because she was held for nearly seven hours in detention being forced to clean up the storage of the theater department the other day.<br/>
It turns out Frederick knows he’s harsh and has a pretty good sense of a fair level, but doubt himself again for perhaps being too lax.<br/>
George assures him he certainly isn’t and becomes everyone’s favorite because he’s the one to handle ‘his majesty.’</p><p>When Frederick finds out about the nickname his eyes widen perplexed. “They’re calling me that on their own account?”</p><p>And it’s so absurd, George can’t stop laughing for the next five minutes, before he nudges him, sill wheezing. “Let’s not tell them you had a seat in the House of Lords. That’s going to be too much.”</p><p>And Fredericks eyes get even bigger, looking like a deer caught in the headlights before slowly nodding. “Let’s not.”<br/>
And that’s that.</p><p>George has no Idea how wrong he is. House of Lords? Ha.</p><p>-oIMMIo-</p><p>“That’s the worst joke you ever pulled on me,” Frederick lowers the paper back onto his desk before him.</p><p>“I’m not joking.”</p><p>The principal rubs his eyes and leans back into his chair. “I know. Why? Did I do something wrong?”</p><p>“No. There’re external circumstances.”</p><p>“External circumstances? We build this together, you’re the best Teacher on my staff and the role model of every single person in this building. The fact that I’m your friend aside, I think I deserve a more detailed Explanation than external circumstances when you ask me to dismiss you.”</p><p>It had been twelve years since he came to the school and nine years since Frederick had won the vote for principal against him.<br/>
He has sniffed about it for the first week knowing he had won because he was seen less capable to interact with children than George.<br/>
Then the two of them had curled up in his Office and reworked not only the whole schedule for every single course but also the complete organization system of the school within the span of the summer vacation.</p><p>They spent days pouring over textbooks, deciding which are to use and which are to scrap, wishing to teach how history really happened and all of it.<br/>
They included poetry from all over the world into literature and most of all, there’s a whole module on regincarnation now and an extra psychiatrist specialized in them hired in addition to the school nurse. As well as a formula to root out unfit Teachers and students alike.<br/>
Yes, the changes need two more years to fully settle in, but then they were and still are listed as the best public high school in the whole country.</p><p>Frederick flounders in the attention, his nickname becoming a Title, used by Staff and Students alike.<br/>
No one uses it to his face, they have too much respect for him.<br/>
He had grown out of the paranoia and mistrust into a fair, even tempered man who can still laugh at himself, his confidence in his abilities radiating control.<br/>
The way he launches in his seat behind his grand desk, a wide angry grin on his face whenever he chews somebody out in a low even voice might be play into that as well.<br/>
It’s something George never will grow used to.</p><p>He takes a deep breath. “I’m going to run for president.”</p><p>“President?”</p><p>“Of the United States.”</p><p>“Pardon. What?”</p><p>“They’re going to tear this country into pieces, no matter who wins, and I’m going to stop that.”</p><p>Frederick splutters. “Wh- the elections are in less than six months! You’re not even part of a party, less than ever showed any political interest before.”</p><p>“I just reworked the whole system of this school.”</p><p>“That’s… That’s different! International Politics is nothing compared to this. That’s not leading an army, and everyone follows your orders. Government is hell! Besides, the organization of your campaign alone! How do you even get the funds let alone the staff? And you have to beat two people with nearly a year of campaigning ahead of you! They are a politician and a billionaire. Have you forgoten how wretched this voting system works? You are a High School teacher!”</p><p>George closes his eyes. He always imagined this moment to be different, but his friend must understand. “I am George Washington.”</p><p>He feels the shift in the room, and he has no idea if it’s good or bad.</p><p>When he opens his eyes again, Frederick is calmly watching him with that calculating look he observes an enraged mother trying to bail her bullying kid out of detention because in her eyes they’re innocent or the council when they try to lower the spending on the free meals the cafeteria provides.</p><p>“George Washington.” Fredericks strange pronunciation makes his skin crawl. He smiles weakly, places his hand over his belly and lowers his head in a caricature of a bow while still sitting. “At your service.”</p><p>Frederic snorts at that and lets out a sarcastic, high pitched ‘ha’ before he grows silent again. The tension is killing George, but he waits for his friend to process it.<br/>
“Washington despised politics.”</p><p>“I do. I became President out of duty, it was needed to be done and people thought me to be the best choice for it. I saw this life as my second chance, to do what I truly enjoy. But I cannot longer stand by, not with what we - I did to form this country. We’ve come such a long way -not that it’s perfect, but I will not give anybody a chance to ruin this process.”</p><p>Frederick shakes his head. “You just can’t drop a revelation like that. I- “<br/>
He sights. “Barrow’s. Six thirty. And now get out of my sight.”</p><p>“Fredrick- “</p><p>“Get out!”  He screeches, and George complies immediately.<br/>
A few steps down the corridor he can hear him starting to manically crackle through the closed door and decides to stop by Stanley’s office so the psychiatrist can check up on Frederick. He might leave him alone, but he definitely won’t abandon him.</p><p>Barrow’s is a small restaurant, simple and cheap but clean and the few meals on the menu are excellent.<br/>
The whole school staff are regulars because Frederic has lunch with everyone at least once a month there and the Christmas Parties alone are legendary.</p><p>When George arrives that evening, Frederick is already there, a bottle of red wine on the table and absentmindedly swirling his glass.</p><p>Frederick rarely drinks. People tend to think it’s because of his medications but he’s actually a deeply religious man.<br/>
He’s just silent about it like he is with all topics he considers private. Sex and Regeneration are the other two. This conversation seems to be doomed from the start.</p><p>“Frederick.”</p><p>“George! Sit, sit. Did you ever found it funny that the King of Britain you fought was also named George? Oh, shall I even call you that? Or do you prefer Gilbert.”</p><p>“George actually. And no, the irony is not lost on me.” He sits down and takes the second empty glass, already waiting on the Table for him.<br/>
Frederick fills it. “The irony is completely lost on you.”</p><p>All right. He is disappointed with him. George takes a sip to avoid the burning blue eyes and blinks surprised, then checks the label. “Do we have something to celebrate?”</p><p>“My best friend, George Washington is running for president.”</p><p>What?<br/>
Something is wrong. He has no idea what Frederick wanted. For the first time since the beginnings of the twenty-seven years of their friendship, he could not read the others mood. And that is not good.</p><p>“Do you think you could’ve been friends? They say, a name forms a character as much as its environment does. Following that theory, you two would be pretty similar to each other. Can you imagine, what the world would look like today if you two would have meet?”</p><p>George tenses. “He was a despondent power-hungry man without any regard for his subjects.”</p><p>Frederick hums lost and swirls his glass again. “I see. Relax, it was merely a thought. He wasn’t that bad, by the way. It doesn’t matter. It’s an olive branch. Throwing you out like that had been drastic, but appropriate, considering how you choose to reveal that Information yourself.”</p><p>“I didn’t plan to do it like that. Or at all if I’m honest.”</p><p>“Perfectly understandable. I mean, that is a stifling heritage you have there. It also explains that weirdly specific rant about the forming of the political parties in congress. George Washington. Ha!”</p><p>Ah, yes. That. Back when they had worked through all those textbooks to decide which to use for the newly developed curriculum and none of them had named the actual reason, he might have gotten carried away a bit.</p><p>Frederick pulls out his notebook and fountain pen.</p><p>“But you have to target both of them if you want to win. And now, you going to tell me how. And please don’t say by revealing yourself.”</p><p>“You know me better than that. But I probably need to access my old fortune to get the campaign running. So, a part reveal as a registration?”</p><p>“Don’t you dare. That law is the most horrendous document ever written in the whole history of mankind. Including the declaration of Independence. If you have a good enough motto I might know some people eager to meet you.”</p><p>“Frederick!”</p><p>“Oh please. Have you actually read it? It’s an absolute mess.”</p><p>George rolls his eyes. Frederick hates the document itself, not what it signified, so he lets it slip. They had too many discussions about that before.</p><p>“Forward.”</p><p>“If you say so.”</p><p>“That’s the motto. Forward.”</p><p>“You grin at me like that should mean something to me.”</p><p>“It’s an American thing. A British aristocrat like you would never understand. ”</p><p>Frederick’s pen flies over the paper. “Then it’s your lucky day this British aristocrat is trained to pitch things he doesn’t understand to other people who should.”</p><p>George’s eyes widen. “You’re in?”</p><p>“No. But, as I said before and you know how much I hate to repeat myself, I might know a few people who will. I won’t let you sell your soul because you need money. The world has no right to know or judge you for your past life.”</p><p>“You’re the best friend I ever had,” George grins relieved.</p><p>Frederick’s smile seems forced as they start to discuss his goals and political stances he wishes to represent.</p><p>-oIMMIo-</p><p>George rereads the article for the countless time while he waits.<br/>
Alexander apparently is still late.</p><p>Oh, how he hopes it is Alexander, but that style is to similar and distinctive for it not to be him.<br/>
Even if it’s not him, George still wants to meet the person responsible for him being already barely seven percent behind his competition after just one TV-Duel and one broadcasted speech on YouTube.</p><p>And this viral article on a small Blog, taking apart every single one of his words and praising his political stances as something the Founding Fathers would approve upon.<br/>
Well, he is one, but thanks to Frederick’s help nobody knows of it.<br/>
George cannot thank his friend enough to have saved him from that particular kind of trouble with the Registration Act looming on the horizon. Something he promises to stop at all costs and the only topic that lets him lose potential voters. But it’s too important to compromise on this one.</p><p>There’re two determined knocks on his door and then there he is.<br/>
He’s just as small but that’s where the similarities in physical appearance end. Except for the eyes. He had read about how Reincarntes apparently recognize each other by their eyes when they’ve meet before, but the only reincarnate out of his Time he had contact with had been Frederick, so he never knew if that was true.<br/>
Turned out it was.</p><p>Alexander offers his hand. “It’s an honor, Sir. Alejandro Ernéz.”</p><p>George shakes it and can’t help to quip. “These French lessons were wasted time then?”</p><p>“Sorry?”</p><p>Oh. There’s a guarded look on Alexanders face and George remembers with a pang of guilt that not every reincarnate remembers fully or at all.<br/>
But apparently his own reaction stirred something in the other because his eyes go wide as saucers. “Your excellency?”<br/>
<br/>
And that is all to pull the scrawny Kidd into a crushing hug. Alexander immediately starts rambling. “I knew it! I knew it. Ok, I didn’t know. But there was just that feeling. I-sir, you are hugging me.”<br/>
<br/>
He laughs, leads him to the Sofa on the side of the room and pours him a cup of Tea. He never serves Alexander Coffee as a rule, that boy was addicted to that substance back then already. Plus, he might have developed a finer taste for tea himself, with Frederick being the stereotypical tea snob he was.</p><p>Alexander is still poor, but both of his parents are alive and in a relationship, he still scored a full stipendium at his college and is currently in his final senior year, studying theatre, literature and economics as a minor.<br/>
He and Frederick probably would go on like a house on fire, considering how often his friend had reminded him of the younger boy.</p><p>He doesn’t get him officially on his team as he insists that Alexander finishes his degrees first, but as expected Alexander has a huge presence in social media and uses it expertly to make both his own and Georges stances well known.<br/>
And after that, more and more faces he knows flow in, mostly because he gets more around.</p><p>Lafayette is the son of the French Ambassador. He refuses to talk a single word in English to test if George actually really learned French this life and also constantly laughs about the coincidence of them sharing the same name now while in their old life Lafayette had named his son after him.</p><p>Von Steuben just struts into his campaign headquarters one day and now practically lives there, with nobody quite sure what he actually does, but everyone to afraid of the now untypically loud South Korean man to ask.</p><p>Miss Eliza Hamilton-Schuyler apparently lives with Alexander in an careful test of a relationship for two years already when he finds her sitting in the small kitchen, chatting with one of his assistants in search for Alexander who went missing. They locate him at the local library and the scolding he witnesses reminds him of what this woman actually accomplished after her husband’s death and fills him with new respect for her.</p><p>Martha is the last one to find him. Well, she was the first one.<br/>
Carleigh Tuning is an assistant to one of the fundraisers Frederick introduced George to, so they saw each other pretty often but never spoke.</p><p>There had always been that weird familiarity with him, as if George knew his face from college or school but never truly interacted with him, the same way all reincarnates felt, except this time there is no half-forgotten name that suddenly springs up. Just that itching in the back of his brain and one day when the younger man presents the new plan for the next few tv-ads George just blurs out: “Have we met before?”</p><p>Carleigh blushes furiously and fiddles with his tablet.” I’m working for this staff for three months now, sir.”</p><p>“No, I know you. College, School, you not happened to work on Mount Vernon?”</p><p>The way he his hands freeze their tapping, George knows the last one is a direct hit.</p><p>“We worked together at Washington’s manor?” He asked for clarification.</p><p>He's silent for a very long time, and George nearly demands an answer, but then he smiles shakingly.<br/>
“A little bit more.”</p><p>George narrows his eyes. “Speak plain, son.”</p><p>Carleigh just tears up and says nothing while holding is gaze. What in the Name of….</p><p>He slowly lets his eyes wander over the slim but broad shouldered figure in the ill-fitting suit- because it’s a woman’s.<br/>
He notices the different neckline and the way it hugs his hips. His long mouse-brown hair tied back in the neck just as some gentlemen in his time preferred and thus not suspicious to him at all. The faint trace of makeup, if he looked closer.</p><p>The man before him is actually a woman, in all but sex. And not just any woman.</p><p>He carefully comes closer and strokes his- her clean-shaven cheeks, traces the strong chin and the high cheekbones.<br/>
She’s still beautiful. <br/>
He doesn’t find his voice but his gaze seems to be enough because she nods and then he pulls her in and kisses her tenderly. She gasps but responds and when they break away for air her eyes are wide and shining.</p><p>“George….”</p><p>“Reincarnation is a bitch,” he mutters that childish phrase and she laughs deep and throaty, but it’s still her laugh.</p><p>Frederick and he had once pondered about what regeneration meant for their former marriages, both having chosen their partners out of politics and later learning to love them. But now, now that she is here before him? He kisses her cheek and shakes his head. “You’re here.”<br/>
<br/>
“If you’ll have me,” she whispers and he rases his eyebrows. “Why wouldn’t I?”</p><p>She sobs and hugs him, and he kisses her hair and doesn’t care about the stares.<br/>
He had his wife back. More, she still wishes to spend her time with him in this new life.</p><p>Fredrick the idiot immediately organizes one of the best surgeons in the country and pays the full fee, once he is introduced to her, so she can finally be herself again.<br/>
When she breaks out in tears, asking for a way to repay him, offering to at least split the costs, he simply smiles and demands to be George’s best man in exchange.<br/>
As if it was ever out of question that position was going to be anybody else’s.<br/>
<br/>
They marry on January the third in a small ceremony with less than fifteen people present as Martha’s family has cut all ties to her.</p><p>Three weeks before George’s -Gilbert’s – inauguration as the 45<sup>th</sup> President of the United States.<br/>
It’s the fourth Contingent Election in the entire History of the country between Trump and him, but he sweeps the congress away with over 78% so it’s a clear win.<br/>
Well, Alexander sweeps them, he wrote the speech -just as an extra measure.<br/>
It’s only when the room explodes in cheers and Von Steuben starts chanting his name and everyone falls in, that he realizes that he didn’t even believed he could. But he does.</p><p>And now, as Frederick raises his Glass to the small group recounting one embarrassing tale after another, while his own thump gently strokes over Martha’s hand in his and the golden ring he just put there mere hours ago, Gilbert Welsh, George Washington, knows he has everything he needs to raise above whatever the next four years will bring.</p><p>-oIMMIo-</p><p>He knew it would get difficult to convince Frederick to become a member of his administration, but he still didn’t expect the resistance he actually put up.</p><p>George had founded the system of using Secretaries for a reason so he fully intends to use it even if they lost their significance over the last years- something he will change again. More, he needed the very best and with them now going up from four to fourteen, he had enough decisions to make and surround himself with persons he doesn’t know if to fully trust. And Fredrick fit perfectly, if not as his Vice president, then as his chief of staff.</p><p>“You’re supposed to be an intelligent man, Washington. If a mere second class company doesn’t see me fit to perform basic organization management and question every scientific observation I did because of my mental health despite being the best they can ever get, what do you think will the public say. I’ll slander your whole cabinet.”</p><p>“You have just to take one look around here to know that that’s not an argument. On the contrary.”</p><p>Frederick leans back with a suffering sigh, closing his eyes and massaging his forehead. “History was not kind to me, George. I’m not remembered for my accomplishments but for the one thing that went wrong during my political life. I regret nothing and would probably act the same because I still believe it to be the right choice. It’s only been recently that people got interested to know who I actually was.”</p><p>“So was Hamilton. It can’t be worse than with him.”</p><p>Frederick snorts. “There’s a reason I never told you. If it gets revealed, and there is a high chance that it will be, your whole cabinet gets compromised.”</p><p>“Now you’re just paranoid.” But there’s a sinking feeling in his stomach. Frederick didn’t have a paranoia attack for the last seven years.</p><p>“Facts. The people of America tend to hate me. The rest of the world not so much, thankfully. But that won’t help me in this situation.”</p><p>“Then who are you?”</p><p>There’re a few historical figures nobody wishes to return, but from the eighteenth century and Britain? Only one came to mind but that was impossible. Frederick was his exact opposite. Except their condition… no. But then, there’s that small arrogant smile on his face, the way he tits his head and stares him down his nose with his bright blue eyes.</p><p>“You really don’t know?”</p><p>“George III.”</p><p>And once he acknowledges what he had known deep down since the day of their college graduation there’s no way to unsee the truth in every fiber of the man sitting opposite of him. The mad King steeples his hands on his desk and waits for his reaction, eyes gleaming with something he had never seen there before, and George suddenly can’t stand being in the same room with him anymore. So, he abruptly stands and leaves. </p><p>
  <em>Do you think you could’ve been friends?<br/>
</em>
</p><p>He stares out of his window the whole way home, not able to unclench his fists.</p><p>Frederick is a humble, generous man, deeply devoted to whatever he declares his cause and duties, intelligent and fair, everything the British King had never been.<br/>
A bit stubborn and self-righteous, yes. And unmovable in his opinions once he formed them, even if he respects if others differ on them.</p><p>And yet, he just said there was only one mistake he ever made and he would make it again and that, that is not the view of somebody who turned his whole being and personality around in an attempt to better himself.</p><p>There’s that small voice in his head whispering that now he knows why Frederick suddenly became this interested in him, helping in his campaign and with Martha so he could call in a depth and plan … something to avenge himself.<br/>
But it was wrong, they always had supported each other like that. The unholy union. How ironic, now more than ever.<br/>
<br/>
He even bought two biographies of George’s former life, and they were not able to stop laughing when George noticed them on his shelf and Frederick had asked him to sign them, which he promptly did just to sprite him.<br/>
He felt himself involuntarily grin at the memory.</p><p>History was a harsh and fragile thing.<br/>
Something he knows, both as Historian and someone who was put on a pedestal from it despite his mistakes.<br/>
So, he takes on his own research.</p><p>The first few books are heavily influenced by some Victorian historian condemning the mad king in a way that is familiar to George.<br/>
But then he stumbles upon some essays published in the working progress on a project that changes his view completely.<br/>
The Queen opened the complete written bequest of George III a few years prior to the public for investigation: Correspondences, journals, notes and drafts, everything he ever wrote, which turns out to be quite a lot.<br/>
<br/>
His handwriting hasn’t changed, that’s the first thing George notices when skimming through the public scans on his Laptop.<br/>
Neither did his habit of particularly detailed note taking or meticulously planning everything out in lists that are checked off afterwards bullet point by bullet point.<br/>
He laughs when he stumbled upon the table which basically reads like an inventory of his fifteen children including everything from the exact hour of birth to weight and hair color, because that’s just such a Frederick thing to do.</p><p>The more he digs, the more the looming grotesque of the mad despot he helped free America from turns into a man who was capable enough to only lose a third of his empire in a time where his fellow monarchs were exiled or slaughtered and drowned their countries in blood. Turns into Frederick with all his mistakes, habits and ticks.</p><p>So many truths he believed in which turn fom conspirances to missunderstandings and unfortunate happenstances.<br/>
He didn’t know he nearly abdicated after their defeat. He understands now his mourning and unwillingness to found a family, his longing yet fear to see them again.</p><p>It's Frederick, yes. But he’s also George III.</p><p>He calls him a week after their disastrous meeting, and asks without preamble:<br/>
“What’s your mistake you still would make again.”</p><p>“Good evening to you as well, Mr. President.”</p><p>George stays silent, waiting for an answer.</p><p>Frederick snorts after a long silence. “You know that.”</p><p>It stings. “Even with the knowledge you now process.”</p><p>“I agreed on a constant offering of negotiations.” Fredericks voice is calm, explaining not lecturing.</p><p>“To surrender.”</p><p>“To stop fighting, “He corrects. “It’s called negotiations, not ultimatum. Considering what you pulled in Paris that fine discrepancy in definition is not known to you.”</p><p>Considering what t<em>hey </em>had pulled after? So, he was biased. George ignores it for now but files it away in his memorys for his final decision to be aware of.</p><p>“So, if I would have agreed to your conditions, you would have listened.”</p><p>“You specifically?” Frederick teases. “We don’t know. We can only speculate how the world had turned out if we ever worked together.”</p><p>George steels himself “Not quite. I still need a Secretary of Education.”</p><p>“Secretary of Education. That’s what we were fighting about? Because of the position of the Secretary of Education? You do realize that’s a demotion from my current standing.”</p><p>“Not in a centralized education system.”</p><p>And there’s the interest in Fredericks voice.  “You really want to push that reform? People are not going to be happy about that.”</p><p>“I’ve always presented my Intentions on that topic very clearly, yet they choose to vote me.”</p><p>“Yes, because most of them believed that you’re going to be too busy with the registration act and the economic and immigrant crisis to actually get to that. And they are right. Not even mentioning wat will pile up in your first 100 days.”</p><p>“That’s why I need you as the capable, intelligent, trustworthy and independent politician you are on that chair.”</p><p>The phone is silent for a second, then: “I must have misheard. Can you repeat yourself, please?”</p><p>George chuckles and rolls his eyes. “I’ll definitely not. You get it as an official document when you sign your employment contract.”</p><p>“That’s different.”</p><p>“Frederick! You have one day to decide.” The same time he gives himself to overthink this really carefully.</p><p>He can hear the eyeroll. “You know me better than that. And not because of your attempt of flattery.”</p><p>And that’s how the Reincarnation of his Majesty George the Third, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith becomes a secretary in the cabinet of the United States of America in the third administrative period of the former President George Washington.<br/>
Alexander Hamilton is his chief of staff.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you have the feeling that this seems cut short and not quite living up to its description, youare correct. This is actually only the setting of the shenanigans that will get down, but I decided to leave those to your imaginaton. Theres a lot of stuff going on on the King's side of family I might add later, tho. Idk, if people ask nicely.<br/>As always Kudos and comments are much apreciated and save me from the vengefull Ghost of George the Third and Washington bc they certainly will team up against mecfor this nonsene.</p><p>Greetings<br/>alkatie</p><p>KD 20092020</p></blockquote></div></div>
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